Hej med jer! Google told me that means hello there! I’m not sure how often that phrase is actually used by the Danes, but I suppose I’ll find out! After a few travel delays that lead to my plane not taking off until after 1 a.m. on Saturday (as opposed to 11 p.m. Friday night, […]

Hello Hello! It’s been almost three years since I last posted on this site. In that time, I left Ecuador, started college, went on my first solo trip (!) where I visited Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco, and traveled to New Orleans for Mardi Gras (the perks of having a sister who lives there means […]

The guilty: I actually do like reggaeton. Try listening and see if you don’t wanna dance. I also not-so-secretly love Gregorian Chants. For a teen-aged Roman Catholic raised turned atheist currently exploring Buddhism, this might seem a bit strange. But listen to this and then tell me it’s not amazing. I’ve wasted spent a lot of time reading trashy […]

Five years ago I had the opportunity to travel (for a hefty price tag) to the Galápagos Islands (with a layover in Quito) on a trip organized by my high school biology teacher. The cost was the major deterrent there, and I chose not to go, since a year living in Europe was higher on […]

A little more than a month ago, shortly after I got back from Brazil, I was on the road (literally this time) once again, to visit Guayaquil and Salinas with my host parents. The thing about driving through the mountains in Ecuador is that the highways are built into the slopes of the Andes. Two […]

Approximately three hours south of Quito, at 3,800 meters above sea level in the Ecuadorian Andes, lies a lake within a caldera known as Quilotoa. It formed around 800 years ago, when a 14,000 year dormant volcano decided to erupt all of a sudden. It’s still active (although there hasn’t been a major eruption since […]

I spent three weeks of late January and early February in São Paulo, Brazil, with Ana, my exchange sister who spent the previous school year living in a room across the hall from mine. Despite flying back to Ecuador just before the start of Carnaval and missing the festivities, I had an incredible time. Visiting […]